Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/25
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Lilian Wu
Taipei, Sept. 25 (CNA) If Republic of China nationals enter the United States using
passports that have the official name of the ROC covered, their passports could be confiscated by U.S. Customs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned Friday.
Kung Chung-cheng (龔中誠), director-general of the ministry’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, said the bureau has asked the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) — which represents U.S. interests in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties — about the matter.
The AIT replied that if foreign nationals enter the U.S. using passports that have the official name obscured with stickers with the aim of changing the features of the passport, U.S. Customs reserves the right to confiscate the passport or deny entry.
Kung’s remarks came after Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴), a long-term Taiwan independence activist and chairman of the Liberal Taiwan Party (自由台灣黨), mobilized nearly 30 people to attempt to storm the bureau office in downtown Taipei to “turn themselves in,” but were deterred by police. [FULL STORY]